


The One-Man Caravan of Apples and Seeds

by yun_foxi



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: A lot of Walking, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Inspired by American Legend, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Trees, Walking, dw this isn't walking: the fic, like really bad humor, same setting but Night Raven College doesn't exist, traveling fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26521822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yun_foxi/pseuds/yun_foxi
Summary: There's a young man going across Twisted Wonderland, planting seeds across vacant fields and leaving a few days after. Nothing carries him and his many bags of seeds but his own, worn black boots. Despite his long journey, his lavender hair, tied back with a weathered brown ribbon, still manages to shine soft and silky. He is a fleeting presence, ever on the move, yet his beauty sparks whispers and rumors of a spirit coming down upon them.Not many have gotten to meet him, but those who have were certainly fortunate to get to know Epel Felmier; not the quiet man who knelt and dug through soil with delicate-looking fingers but the passionate farmer boy who was warm as a dragon's egg. This is the collective stories of their encounters and the reunion they all shared at a certain place closest to home.
Relationships: Epel Felmier & Epel Felmier's Father, Epel Felmier & Epel Felmier's Grandmother, Epel Felmier & Rest of the Cast, Epel Felmier/Jack Howl
Kudos: 15





	The One-Man Caravan of Apples and Seeds

**Author's Note:**

> cracked a joke about johnny epelseed and then this was born.
> 
> thank you to esbie for enabling my nonsense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epel leaves home for new horizons.

There was a certain sense of carelessness in his decision to go off and plant apple saplings all across Twisted Wonderland. Epel knew. He'd heard it more than enough times from his parents and the rest of the tight-knit community he called home. "Why," they asked, "and how? You're _walking?_ You're crazy." Stir crazy, he'd snap back with his characteristically curt tone. Inside the village, he'd earned a reputation of being stupidly fierce. Kids his age called him a wild goose in good fun.

"Yuh'll be exposing yerself to robbers and kidnappers," his dad brought up while Epel was packing his saplings together. It was the fifth time he'd heard this objection, so Epel just let his dad talk. "Besides, what'll happen when ya run out of clothes? And food? You _will_ be coming back in time for the harvest, yeah? Make sure ya eat well." Dad laid a little sapling into an empty space. Epel sighed promptly, letting his shoulders fall down.

For one last time that year, the two turned to face each other, a small and gentle smile on the delicate-looking son's face and worry blooming so prominently over the older man's brows that his name might as well be changed to Worrier. "Pa," the lavender-haired boy started, voice catching in an ugly snag and the lad consequently wincing. "I'll be fine. I know how to take care of myself, yanno, and.... uh." Looking at his dad's sad, big-dog amber eyes made him stop halfway through his reassurance and stand there, mouth slightly open with unspilled words. Damn if he wasn't ever sure of this idea, either, and when his smile slipped off he knew that his face had adopted a similar sort of worry to whatever ugliness showed itself on his dad's face.

Instead of looking disappointed in him or anything like that, his dad smiled at him as gently as Epel had just a few moments ago and placed a callused, dirt-flecked hand on his son's head. "I know ya got this. Yeu've been preparin' for this for months. And we've all been helpin' ya. I know I've been doin' nothing but worryin' after ya but I'm right behind you, Epel." A few soft tousles of Epel's hair had the lavender-haired boy smiling again, this time bashfully. "Just come back alive, that's all I'm askin' ya."

Dammit, he was cryin' already. Epel ducked his head down further, a few small sob-laughs escaping him before he felt thin but strong arms wrap around him. He buried his head in his dad's shoulder, wiping away a few stray tears with a side-to-side of his head. Pa laughed warmly, and naturally Epel laughed along with him, hugging back tightly before letting his hands drop to his sides and looking up. "I-I'll do my best, Pa, and I'll make y'all proud. And I promise ya, I'll be home before the first apples start fallin', so don'tcha worry about having to go through the harvest with only Gramma."

"Yer the best, Epel," Dad laughed again, hugging his son one more time, "and we all believe in ya. Enjoy yerself out there, and go plant them seedlin's."

"I will!" Epel beamed. He turned around again to grab and put away his last little tree, lidding a large, beech-white wooden carton. His dad began tying up the box in a leather cord as he ran to the corner, slipping into a thick grey-blue jacket whose sleeves nearly covered his gloved palms. Dad approached him, looping the cord over his neck with a gentleness seen in caring after scrawny kids and gave him one good, solid pat. "G'bye now. I love ya, Epel."

"Love you too, Pa," he responded very warmly.

While the moon hung high in the sky, a crackling glow seeping out from the uncovered windows of the simple house, Epel finally left home, a chilly autumn breeze hitting his cheeks the moment he opened the door. In a few minutes, he was already out of the Village of Harvest, his family's apple farm the only thing he would recognize now if he turned around. The grass below his strong black boots was nearly as dark as the aforementioned footwear, and the crunch of their chilled, thin blades was the only indication that Epel was moving forward at all. Suddenly he felt _small,_ smaller than he'd felt before when everybody had hit their growth spurts and he barely grew in comparison. He was out in the world like he'd wanted, sure, yeah, but right now even the stars in the sky, tinier than his pinky, towered over him. Watching him. That was a presumptuous thing for him to say, but a tiny quiver in his chest convinced him fully that it was true.

There wann't any reason for him to be so nervous. He wann't doing this for any sort of special attention, or for any reason at all, either. A strong puff of wind blew past, pushing Epel forward and chilling him to a shiver, but he readjusted his grip on his box and, hugging it closer, kept walking forward and feeling crunchy grass sounds echo beneath his feet. "M'be i's just the cold," he whispered to himself, then remembering that it was still autumn and so the nights wouldn't be deathly cold just yet. It was definitely just him.

... It'd be fine, Epel remembered warmly with a glance back home. "Pa believes in me," he reiterated, smile growing wider and stupider. "So I _hafta_ come back home." His shaking ceased, and with a slight pause, a tap of his restless foot, and a shake of his messily ponytailed hair, Epel tarried on into the moonlit fields of Pyroxene.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guys have no idea how much time i spent trying to figure out what color eyes epel's dad should have
> 
> also it took me over a week to remember that epel had a grandma instead of a dad. whatever, it's a canon divergence.
> 
> edit oct 6: EPEL HAS A DAD CONFIRMED, HE MENTIONED HIM IN THE GHOST STORY PERSONAL STORY :OOOO

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: @yun_seaweed  
> yt: Hayeon


End file.
